P2C2: Northern Annular Mode (NAM) Variability during the Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period in a Cave Ice Core Record from Northwestern Romania

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Funding is provided to investigate the twin hypotheses that decade-to-century-scale climate variability was a persistent feature over the past two millennia in Eastern Europe and that the Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period were part of this pattern of decadal-to-centennial variability. Specifically, the researchers seek to obtain an annual to decadal resolved record of climate from layered ice and speleothems from caves in Northwestern Romania The researchers aim to address a number of important science questions that include: 1) What was the response of temperature and the hydrologic cycle to Northern Annular Mode (NAM) variability over the last 2,000 years in southeastern Europe? 2) What was the oxygen isotopic signature of extreme climate events during the Little Ice Age (LIA) and Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and how does this compare to other parts of the North Atlantic such as Greenland? 3) Is the spatial signature of the climate response, and published vegetation anomalies associated with the LIA and MWP, consistent with changes of the NAM? and 4) What are the combined effects of changes in radiative forcing and persistent NAM patterns on regional-scale climate?The broader impacts involve the possible development of a new archive for paleoclimate information; support of graduate student and postdoctoral scholars; the fostering of strong international cooperation between U.S. and Romanian scientists; and the development of educational displays for visitors to Apuseni National Park in Romania about cave environments and their role in climate studies.